Today I ran across a short article about PDFs and using them on the web which I thought would be good to share with my Web Manager friends.

Read it! But if you absolutely don't have the time, here's a pithy quote from it that captures the essence: "No matter how tempting it might be, you should never use PDF for content that you expect users to read online."

So, what are PDFs good for?

Providing a format for documents that doesn't rely on proprietary software

Forms that need to be filled and printed

Large documentation/handbook-type documents that might need to be stored on a personal computer or printed

What happens because of bad PDF use?

Poor accessibility (how available your content is to all users, including those with disabilities)

Poor user experience (users have to switch behaviors from web to document)